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The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization.

Richard Foerster

by this poet

For all the bother, it's the peeling away
we savored, the slow striptease
toward a tender heart—
how each petal dipped in the buttery sauce
was raked across our lower
teeth, its residue
less redolent of desire than sweet restraint,
a mere foretaste of passion,
but the scaly plates
piled up like potsherds in a

What was given came without
the usual reasons—the earth
that day having completed
no meaningful circuit of the sun.
The giving should have been cause enough
for surprise, or that hidden beneath
patterned folds of wrap, within
a box large as any man's bewilderment,
waited some unknown thing, purchased